Edible containers and sheet-like edible base materials are sold in a form suitable to contain frozen confections and desserts, such as ice cream, ice milk, frozen yogurt and the like. These edible containers and sheet-like edible base materials are typically delivered to the retail establishments where the frozen desserts are sold by their respective manufacturers.
Typical edible containers consist of sheet-like containers in which a large amount of water is blended with raw ingredients, such as wheat flour, cooking oil, sugar and the like, and then kneaded to form a dough that is baked on a high-temperature heated platen. The containers may take a variety of shapes and/or forms, such as waffle cones and cup-shaped waffle cups in which the sheet-like baked dough is formed into the shape of a cone and cup, respectively, as well as dish-shaped edible containers adapted to contain tart confections and the like.
Waffles, wafers, waffle cups and edible dishes for frozen desserts and/or tart confections are characteristically crispy and, since they are brittle, are susceptible to breakage during storage and transport prior to use. There are numerous difficulties encountered in the handling of such edible containers during shipment from the factory following baking as well as after shipment during delivery to ice cream and confection stores. In order to eliminate these problems, one method of producing an edible container has been previously developed by the present applicant and is described in Japanese Published Application No. 4-148638.
However, according to the technique disclosed in such Japanese published application, the moisturized molded sheets discharged from the moisturizing process will have a sticky surface. As a result, they cannot be sent to the final heating step without first having been individually spread out and dried. As such, a long period of time (e.g. on the order of roughly six hours) is required in order for the above-mentioned drying step to be accomplished. Additional problems include the formation of mold or excessive drying resulting in breakage due to considerable changes in the moisture content attributable to atmosphere changes during drying.
Broadly, the present invention relates to a method of producing a shallow dish-shaped, cup-shaped or cone-shaped edible container in which frozen confections, such as soft or hard ice cream, ice milk tart confections and like types of food products are placed. More particularly, this invention relates to an edible porous food container having a small apparent specific gravity which is lightweight and preferably exhibits a crispy texture when eaten.
In order to eliminate the problems noted previously, the present invention is especially characterized by sealing each of the moisturized molded sheets in a moisture-proof state for shipment. When a large number of moisturized sheets is required, the sheets are stacked and collectively sealed within a moisture-proof package in an integrated form to thereby prevent product contamination by microbes and loss due to breakage during the distribution and storage process. Preferably, non-water-absorptive peelable sheets are interposed between individual moisturized molded sheets in the stack during shipment. The sanitary edible containers are thus delivered to the point of use and are then formed and solidified into dishes, cup-shaped and cone-shaped edible containers after being subjected to a baking and softening step using a relatively low amount of energy.
Further aspects and advantages of this invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof.